In response, I want to share my story about the ways in which I’ve recognized how White Supremacy has invaded some of my views and attitudes. My hope is that by “going first” and sharing my story, others might see themselves in Kwon and Thompson’s writing and critiques, and receive them as a gift of love to the Church (as I have while I followed their work the last few years). Here is how White Supremacy invaded my theology.
Here is the key insight Evangelicals can and should take from the book. If you simply add a dose of Christian seasoning and language to an aggressive, secular conception of masculinity—and then marry that aggressive, secular masculinity to religious doctrines of male leadership—the result is disaster. Obsession with male power (rinsed through scriptures misused to manipulate and subjugate not just women, but every person subject to the male leader) manufactures abuse.
Who is responsible for slavery? The Free Church of Scotland has made itself responsible for slavery, by regarding these men as the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. Think of this, Christian men and women of Scotland!
As the “two streams” of the Black “soul dynamic” and the white “Reformed theology” mingled, the Black stream was faced with white-supremacy and forced to wrestle hard with it. I still haven’t found the chapter or article from a white figure entitled “Trusting the Theology of a Liberation Theologian.” It seems like all this work to assimilate into the “single river” was being done from one direction.
I think that Dabney would similarly bristle at the idea that his support of slavery and white-supremacy was merely a “blind spot.” White supremacy was something he believed in to the core of his being, and fought for to the end of his life. I think he would have considered it dishonorable to treat him otherwise.
Concupiscence is among our choicest words to be recovered. Because of the great influence of Augustine, it has traditionally been associated closely with sexual desire, even within marriage. Its range of meaning, however, is broader.
Do not assume the worst of your brethren. In both politics and religion, the tendency is to paint your opponents in the worst possible light and to assume the worst of their motives.
Is the criticism true, however, that the claim that a persistent, immutable homosexual orientation is inherently sinful and corrupt, contrary to nature, and therefore disqualifying for pastoral ministry, is the product of the Higher Life movement and not authentic Reformed theology?
Suppose you have two single individuals, and one of them is single because he or she experiences strong same sex attraction (SSA) and assumes marriage is therefore impossible. How is pastoring or discipling the one different from pastoring or discipling the other?